


tough love

by firstrealcrush



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-09
Updated: 2013-06-09
Packaged: 2017-12-14 11:36:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstrealcrush/pseuds/firstrealcrush





	tough love

Louis was the shy boy at school. The one who always followed rules and did what he was supposed to. Harry was the bad boy. The one who did drugs, got drunk, and had sex with anything that moved. But somehow the two of them ended up dating. Louis sat outside the school, against a tree, reading a book he had to for English.

“Hey babe!” harry called, walking towards Louis.

“Hey Harry!” He set his book down and smiled. Harry groaned and rubbed his eyes.

“I feel horrible.” he muttered under his breath, collapsing down next to Louis. 

“Drank too much last night?” Louis patted Harry’s knee and smiled sadly.

“yeah, and these weird pills my friend gave me made me throw up a lot..” Harry said, staring off into space, not noticing Louis tensing up next to him.

Louis sighed and dropped his head into his hands, rubbing his temples.

“Harry..I don’t know why you do these things..”

“they help…” Harry replied, looking into Louis’ eyes with his sad ones, but then he noticed what he said and tensed up. Louis turned to Harry.

“Help with what Harry..?”

 “oh, nothing, just forget it.” Harry snapped, standing up. A girl called Lily started walking toward the two.Louis sighed again and put his book in his bag, throwing it over his shoulder as he stood up. 

“What are you doing after school today?” he asked.

“hope fully something with y-” Harry was cut off by Lily’s voice.

“Hey Har!” she shouted, flirtily. Louis looked at his shoes and smiled awkwardly.

 “Um, text me..later, i guess.” He turned on his heels and started to walk away, not wanting to witness flirting. Harry grabbed his arm, and pulled him back next to him. 

“Harry, is this the friend you’ve been telling us about? He’s cute..” she said, stepping closer to Louis and eyeing him up and down. Harry didn’t tell some of his friends about his relationship yet, but that didn’t stop the fact that he was insanely protective of Louis. Louis looked at the girl and cringed a little, taking in her smeared make up and teased hair. He stuck a hand around Harry’s waist and pulled himself closer. she looked at Louis’ arm around Harry’s waist for a second and she had a confused look on her face.

“um, why is he d-”

“He’s mine.” harry growled, interrupting her. He pulled Louis behind him.

“whatever.” she mumbled and walked away.Louis looked at Harry surprised.

“Protective.” He smiled. “Had no idea.”  Harry turned around quickly, pushing Louis against the tree. their faces were really close. 

“yeah, well you’re mine” he smirked, leaning closer.

Louis pushed his lips onto Harry’s and he smiled through the kiss. He pulled away,

“I love you..” he whispered. Harry smiled.

“I love you too.” Louis started to play with the bracelets on Harry’s wrist and they stood like that for a while.

“Fags!” Louis heard off in the distance. He jumped, turning to see a group of boys mocking them. Harry ripped his hand away from Louis’ and walked over to the group.

“Excuse me, but we didn’t ask for your commentary.” He snapped at them.

“shut up, druggie. maybe one day we’ll all get lucky and you’ll overdose!” He yelled back at him.Harry broke. His eyes got really watery and he tried to say something back.

“I-I-I” he stuttered. I’ve already tried.. he thought to himself.

“What’s wrong, babe, cat got your tongue?” another one of the boys mocked.

“s-stop..” Harry mumbled. Then, one of the boys kicked him, really hard in the chest. He fell, his body trembling. Louis ran over quickly, kneeling over harry and holding his hand.  

“Go away.” He spat at the other boys, who kicked dirt at him before running somewhere else. Louis grabbed Harry by the hand and lead him to his car, putting him in the passenger seat and climbing in next to him. “Are you okay babe?” He asked. Harry didn’t answer. He curled up into a ball and leaned against the window, his back facing Louis. He sobbed. Louis lifted up the glove box in between the two seats and moved over to Harry, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “Shh, Harry, baby.. It’s going to be okay..” He reached down for Harry’s hand and held it reassuringly.

“b-but they were…t-they’re right” Harry choked out

“Right about which thing babe? It’s okay, you can tell me.” Louis said softly.

 “that everything w-would just be better if I was…gone. it’s not true, is it?”  Louis choked down a cry and answered quickly.

“N-no. Of course not Harry.Don’t believe them.” Louis sat and ran his fingers through Harry’s hair. Harry turned and faced Lou, burying his head into his chest. 

“what time is it?” he asked weakly. Louis looked down at the time on his dash.

“4:27.” He said, “Want me to take you home?”

“can you?” he smiled up at Louis, who had nothing but concern in his eyes. He really was lucky to have him.

 “Of course.” He kissed Harry on the forehead and scooted over to the driver’s seat, buckling his seat belt and putting the car in reverse. Harry waited for Louis to get onto the freeway, so Lou could drive safely with one hand. The second Louis dropped one of his hands into his lap, Harry reached over and grabbed it. Louis looked over slightly and smiled. 

“Do you wanna talk about it, Harry?”

“I don’t know..” he replied, shakily. Harry had a trust problem, there was a lot Louis didn’t know.. he didn’t think he would understand unless he told him everything, and that would probably only scare him away.

“Harry, if you’re not going to tell me i’ll pull the car over until you do.” Louis looked over, noticing the look on Harry’s face. “I’m only kidding, Harry.. If you really don’t want to talk about it that’s fine. But you know i’m always gonna be here for you.”

 “I want to tell you, but I don’t want to hurt you…”  _I can’t do this. No, yes I can. Harry just tell him, he might help you.._  “Lou, can we go somewhere?”

“Of course.” Louis squeezed Harry’s hand reassuringly and smiled. “Where to?”

“somewhere quiet.. I want to talk to you.” he replied, smiling. Louis knew just the place. They sat in silence for about 5 minutes before Louis pulled up to a little beach. 

“This okay?” He asked.

“perfect…” Harry replied, stepping out of the car. Louis took his hand and led them to an area in the sand, close to the water. He sat down and held Harry’s hand tight.

 ”What do you wanna talk about?”

“why i’m such a screw up.” harry muttered.Louis pulled back a little, hurt. 

“You’re not a screw up babe.” He whispered.

“that isn’t what everybody else tells me.. even my own stepdad.” Harry said, staring off into the ocean, tears pricking the corners of his eyes.  Louis looked down at the sand. 

 ”Tell me about it Harry, i’m here to listen.”

 ”well, he’s always hated me. and then mum left for a while, I don’t blame her. so I was alone. Gemma left too. I didn’t have any where else to go, so I had to stay with Robin…” Harry let his voice trail off.

“Harry do you want to move in together?” Louis was taken aback by his own words, his mouth seemed to have a mind of it’s own when it came to Harry.

“L-lou…”

“I’m sorry Harry it wasn’t supposed to come out like that, i just don’t want you to be stuck living somewhere you don’t want to be..” Louis started rambling on, as he always did when he got nervous. Harry cuddled into Louis. 

“No, Lou. I don’t want to be a burden on you, I mean, your family had enough to deal with as it is, I can handle myself..”

Harry don’t ever think you’d be a burden on me.” He looked Harry in the eyes and smiled. “My mum loves you, i doubt she’d mind..”

“but the girls.. Lou, I can’t.. i’ll stay with robin, he’s f-fine.” he stuttered on the last word. _shit, Harry. that’s super believable now. way to go.._  


 ”Harry, stop the charade. You’re already this far, tell me the rest.” Louis said blankly. Harry sighed. 

“well, remember when you first met my stepdad, and you thought he was mean?”

 ”..Yeah.” Louis said slowly. Harry closed his eyes tightly, and then rolled up his sleeve, revealing a dark purple bruise.

”..well..he is.” Harry choked. Louis’ breathe caught in his throat.

“Harry…” he said, staring at his arm. Harry looked up into Louis’ eyes.

“please don’t tell anyone!” he yelped out.

“No, Harry. God, no. I would never.. I just.. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” He picked up Harry’s arm and began examining the bruise.

 ”I was scared Lou..” he whispered.

“N’aw, Harry.” Louis pulled him into a hug, holding him tight.

-

“i’ll be ok though, I promise! It was only once, I think he was just drunk. He’s a really nice guy.”

“Harry don’t feed me that bullshit.” He pulled away. “I know it wasn’t only once, i’m not stupid.”

Harry swallowed. “may I sleep at your house tonight Lou?”

“And every night after that.” He hugged him again. “You’re not going back there, Harry.”

Harry cupped Lou’s face and kissed him. “you’re the best, you know that, right?”

“No, Harry. You are.” His voice trailed off. “Anything else you’d like to talk about?”

“well… I think I might try to stop the drugs and alcohol, actually. I know you don’t like it..”

“Harry its not that i don’t like it, just that it’s bad for you.”

“I know, babe. I guess it just took my mind off of the stress. But i’ve realized that you’re all I need.”

Louis smiled widely. “So how are we going to go about this, are we moving you to my house first or are we going to the police first?”

“w-what?!” Harry stared at him in shock

“Harry, you know i’m not just going to let this go. What he’s doing to you..It’s not right..And if he did it to you, whose to say he won’t do it to someone else later? Or that he hasn’t already done it.. To Gemma, or to your mum.. It’s for the best Harry.” Louis said with a strict yet caring face.

“N-no!” Harry ripped himself out of Louis arms. His eyes were burning and watering at the same time. “I-I trusted you..” his voice barely audible.

Louis sighed heavily. “Well first of all, Harry, i haven’t told any one yet, so calm down. Second of all, why don’t you want to put this sick bastard behind bars?”

“you don’t understand, Louis.” he whispered. He started to walk away.

“Harry, wait.” He got up and started walking after him, “I /want/ to understand, Harry. So tell me.”

“it’s so hard” harry sobbed. “it’s not his fault, I know it’s because something happened. I guess I can just relate to him? I don’t know.. but he told me he would stop, and he’s been right so far! I just want to give him a chance, you know? “

“that man keeps hurting you and you say it’s not his fault? He’s got PROBLEMS Harry! You need to see that, baby you’re so much better than this.” He said, walking closer to him.

Harry cringed when Louis yelled and took a step back. “I told you Lou, you don’t know how it is to have something else control you, it makes you hurt other people. you can’t help it.” harry snapped.

“That’s the thing though, Harry. You CAN help it. And..” Louis sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “And even if you don’t do something about this, I will. I can’t stand to see you hurt like that.”

“N-NO!!! LOUIS…..!” Harry shouted, walking back over to him. he was freaking out, his eyes wild

“Harry i know you know it’s the right thing to do. Stop hiding!” Louis yelled, grabbing harry by the shoulders and shaking him slightly.

“if you tell anyone i’ll leave.” Harry gritted through his teeth. He was staring into Louis’ eyes. He couldn’t do that to Robin. something bad happened to him, and caused him to snap. Harry knew that. He knew he would, and could get better.

Louis stopped in his tracks, a tear slid down his cheek. “W-well.. I guess you should leave then.” His voice cracked as he spoke and he heard his heart break.

Harry froze. He knew he couldn’t trust anybody. not one person. He couldn’t trust any of his “friends”. He couldn’t trust teachers. The one person he thought he could trust was Louis. And he broke his promise, then and there. Harry could feel himself breaking down. shit, not this again. The urge came again, and he began tugging at his bracelets. “I can’t belive you.” he spat at Louis. “You were the only person I could trust. I guess I was right all along then. People are just out to hurt you.” He snapped at Louis and turned away, leaving him there,

“Harry wait!” Louis called after him, chasing him practically. “Harry!” Louis didn’t want Harry to leave. That was the last thing he wanted. Well, that’s not true. The last thing he wanted was for Harry to get hurt again. But.. maybe that’s what had just happened, and it was his fault. “Harry, please wait.” He called after him again.

Harry started running. He couldn’t let Louis see him break down. He knew it was coming, and it was bad, it always was.

Louis shook his head and ran after Harry, finally catching up to him when he slowed down. “Harry, i don’t want it to end this way.”

“why don’t you just leave me alone?!” Harry shouted. Harry’s eyes were wild, he couldn’t let Louis see him, his insides were exploding and he needed to take it out somehow, he couldn’t let himself let it out on Lou. He started fiddling with his bracelets again, desperately wanting Louis to just go home.

“Harry i don’t want to leave you alone. I think that’s the last thing you need right now. Come on, i’m taking you home. And by home, i mean my house. OUR house.” He grabbed Harry’s wrist and pulled him along, back to the car.

pain shot up Harry’s arm and he grunted, trying to pull his arm away.

 ”Harry stop it! You’re being ridiculous. Come on, i’m taking you home. we’re having a proper talk with my mum. Maybe she can talk some sense into you.”

“Louis let go of my wrist, it hurts!!” he yelped, the pain increasing

Louis dropped his hand as he realized. He felt tears in his eyes and he wrapped Harry into another hug. “I’m so, so sorry, Harry.”

 Harry hugged him back, feeling his pain go away.

Louis nuzzled into Harry’s chest. “I love you, Harry..”

 ”I love you, Lou.”


End file.
